Wow, August was a really tough month to get some blogging done. I thought my last lapse in writing was going to be the biggest break I would need during the year, but the end of the summer was so busy that it's been about 3 weeks since I've gotten to write an update. Perhaps that isn't too much of a surprise. Writing nearly everyday for an entire year may have been a little ambitious. And if the calendar year were a 4 round WOD, August would have been smack dab in the middle of round 3, where things typically fall apart for me. With round 4 on the horizon though, I hope to catch my second wind and finish the year strong. I promise that you have at least 7 new entries coming in short order.
When I last wrote, I had experienced a twinge in my lower back as I reached the midway point of my back squat program. I have been told repeatedly that you don't want to mess with a back problem, so I planned on laying low for a while. And with a trip to Maine a few days away, I thought I'd be doing nothing more than some stretching and light rowing for the next 10 days. But I'm a WOD addict. If there was any way that I could do a few more WODs before my trip, I wanted to do so. But when Doctor Coach Sommelier Giulz texted me that there was no way she was letting me do the next day's WOD, things looked bleak. However, she was desperate for some Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and when I showed up to the 6:30 class with some, she softened her stance a bit.
The 8/20 WOD was called Farmstrong and went like this:
10 Rounds:
1 20 ft Rope Climb
100 ft Farmers Carry (70/53)
250 meter row
Time cap: 20 minutes
Honestly, my first impression was that this was not a good workout for me to test my back out on. The rope climbs could cause some strain on my back, especially later in the workout when I was tired. Holding two 70 lb KBs and walking with them repeatedly really sounded like a bad idea. (I tested out rowing prior to the WOD and was fine with that part of it.) During the warmup, we started with the row before moving to the farmers carry. As everyone else picked up their KBs, I asked Giulz whether I should just hang out at the rower. She told me I should at least try the farmers carry. And what I found was that if I was very careful with my form when picking up the KBs (squatting down completely to pick them up without hunching over at all), I could handle the weight without any pain. Last of all, I tested out the rope climb and didn't experience any problems with my back. Looked like I was doing the WOD after all!
For a while I have wanted to talk about my fear of failing at the gym, but there hasn't been a workout where I felt like I could incorporate those feelings with the workout that was done that day. And then Farmstrong came along. The 5:30 class let me know that the workout was a grip killer, which is not what you want to hear when you're about to attempt climbing a rope to the 20 ft ceiling a bunch of times. This wasn't the usual fear of failing I have in class, but you better believe I was concerned about how the rope climbs would go, especially during the last 10 minutes of this workout. I envisioned myself with Hans Gruber's expression on my face as my grip failed 18 ft above the floor...
My usual fear of failure is the kind that causes me to stop at 12 reps when I might have been able to get 14 reps if I kept pushing. "Might have been able to" is really the key phrase there as I've been known to overestimate my abilities a time or two. But I believe there is a mental block involved in my decision to take a break at a given point in a workout. It's not that I'm afraid to push myself to exhaustion (often times I do). Rather, it is my fear of keeping it together mentally should I fail. For example, let's say I get to a point in a workout where I have to do 30 toes-to-bar. If I fail on my 5th rep, am I mentally strong enough to shrug it off and keep believing that I have 26 more good reps in me? Or will I freak out and think "I couldn't even get 5 reps in before failing...how the hell will I get to 30?" It is that kind of mindset that makes me only do the amount of reps I feel confident I can do without failing. The no rep has too devastating an effect on me, especially when I'm tired. Add that to the list of things I need to improve on.
With Farmstrong, the fears were "don't plummet to your death" and "don't throw out your back". And since it was a 20 minute workout in the sauna that is KOP, "don't drown in a puddle of your own sweat" needed to be mixed in there as well. With 7 people in the class and only 4 ropes, we broke into two groups with a staggered start. I would be working out with Josh M and Rachel, while Raj, Nico, Alicia, and Alex (sporting some awesome striped socks that I let her borrow) worked together in the second group.
If I wasn't concerned about my back at all, I would have approached this workout with a certain degree of confidence. I tend to be good at rope climbs. The farmers carry required walking with 70 lbs in each hand, but in Fight Gone Strongman, we had 155 lbs in each hand, so this was certainly manageable. And rowing 250 meters wasn't so bad. My only hesitation would be that up until this point, I had only done three 20 ft rope climbs in a workout before, so there was probably some limit as to how many successful climbs I could expect in this workout. But I had learned in a recent workout that I needed to focus more on securing my feet than getting up the rope super fast. If I could do that, I thought I would be able to surpass my previous best fairly easily.
Josh, Rachel, and I got going and Josh was not taking any prisoners. Despite being fresh and generally always having a secure foothold on my first climb up the rope, I could not keep pace with Josh on the first climb. And it wasn't like I had gone slow, as I was ahead of Rachel by about the same amount Josh was ahead of me. But this wouldn't simply be a case of Josh setting a blistering pace at the beginning and then fading later on. He smoked his way through this workout, leaving me and Rachel in the dust. As for me, I got to the KBs, made sure I didn't hunch while picking them up, then speed-walked down the gym and back before hustling to my rower. The first row was not problematic and I headed over for my second rope climb as Josh descended from his.
There wasn't too much difference in the way the next three rounds played out. I made my way up the rope very methodically, focused on saving my strength by ensuring that my foothold on the rope was solid. There was always a pause before picking up the KBs, a combination of getting a breather and making sure that I did it properly. The row was surprisingly the part that became very difficult as the rounds wore on. This workout was indeed a grip killer, making it difficult to hold on to the handle and pull properly. I expected each row to take 60-70 seconds, but it soon bordered on 90 seconds. All this time, Rachel was right on my heels. I kept pushing to stay in front of her, but I knew it was unlikely I'd keep my advantage for the full 20 minutes. At the end of round 4, I was slightly ahead still, the clock was closing in on 11 minutes, my breathing was heavy, and my grip was shot. It was time to face fear head on.
My forearms were on fire as I talked myself into climbing the rope the 5th time. I took time to grab chalk and it was at this point that Rachel finally passed me. Climbing the rope seemed like a really bad idea, but I couldn't stop with nearly 9 minutes left in the workout. I talked myself into jumping on to the rope and began making very small pulls. I had also begun clutching the rope with my entire body, like I do when I get tired on the cargo net. I had little faith that my hands would maintain a hold of the rope, so I was using everything I could to keep me from falling. This technique was slow, but safe. Finally I reached the top and could descend from this death trap. The descent was slow as well, but I made it back to the floor under control.
My next trip to the KBs was slower as I had to calm myself after that episode. I made sure I was ready to go the whole distance before picking up the KBs and doing some more speed-walking.
This qualifies as a decent workout picture of me
The row was slow again, but it was a nice break. Unfortunately, even a slow 250 meters doesn't take that long, so I was back to the rope again. And climb #6 was exactly like climb #5 (possibly slower). With a few minutes left on the clock, I grabbed the KBs, did my farmers carry, and got to the rower. I had less than 100 meters to row when I heard there was a minute remaining. I made sure to finish that row, then jogged over to the rope, hoping to get one last climb. Twice I tried to jump on the rope and shimmy myself upward, but I was out of grip and out of energy. Final score: 6 full rounds RX.
I was happy that I doubled my previous best of 20 ft rope climbs in a workout. I was happy that I did not experience any additional back pain. And more than anything, I was happy that I didn't have to grip anything immediately after the workout. (I may or may not have driven home using my knees) I've had some workouts with hang power cleans do a number on my forearms, but that was nothing compared to how I felt at the end of this workout. Just brutal.
8/21 preview: a workout to help out one of KOP's best. And Dave in pink.
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